Psalm 51:1-19 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness… I. THE CRY OF CONTRITION. Like a perfect master of medicine, unfolding in his clinical teaching, feature after feature Of the special ease under treatment till the very hereditary taint is manifest, David searches out this worst sickness; like the stern, skilful prosecutor summing up the damning evidence against a criminal, David lays bare fact after fact of his unmitigated guilt; like a faithful, solemn judge according just recompense to the evildoer, David pronounces on himself the penalty of God's righteous law. II. THE CRY FOR CLEANSING. This cry for cleansing is twofold — cleanse the record, cleanse myself. Two faces are bent over the proofs of his sin — God's and David's. From each gazer these sins must be hidden — from the one that there may be no condemnation, from the other that there may be full consolation. Cleanse me, wash me, make me whiter than snow. What orderliness, what Spirit-taught wisdom in this prayer! A polluted stream may be run off, but a poisoned spring must be cured. The wells of Marsh and the springs of Jericho call for their Maker's hand. So does my heart. What a terrible but fruitful view of sin! III. THE CRY OF CONSECRATION. These new powers shall not be wasted. The new heart and the new spirit long for work. This fresh and unstinted grace to David fills his soul with thankfulness, and thankfulness embodies itself in toil for God and man. Praise is not wanting. But works surpass words. Grace from God always produces giving to God. Labour is as love, and love is as forgiveness. Where there is no condemnation there should be full consecration. (J. S. Macintosh, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: {To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.} Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. |
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